'He wished he could apologise to them all' Ex-KKK member who publicly said sorry for lynchings and cross burning dies at 76

Elwin Wilson, the former Ku Klux Klan supporter who publicly apologized for years of violent racism, including the beating of a black Freedom Rider who went on to become a Georgia congressman, has died. He was 76.

Wilson died on Thursday at a hospital in South Carolina after a bout with the flu and years of heart and lung problems, said his wife, Judy Wilson.

Shetold The Associated Press in a telephone interview Sunday that he was relieved he lived long enough to try to make amends for years of racial hatred. He detailed his deeds at length when he called The Herald of Rock Hill to apologize shortly after President Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009.

Elwin Hope Wilson holds a framed photo he kept showing a mob he participated in during one of local civil rights 'sit-ins' that took place in the early 1960s, in Rock Hill, South Carolina

'He said he had it on his heart for a long time,' said Judy Wilson. 'He said he wished he could find the ones he mistreated and apologize to them all."

Among his actions were cross burnings; hanging a black doll in a noose at the end of his driveway; flinging cantaloupes at black men walking down Main Street; hurling a jack handle at a black boy jiggling the soda machine in his father's service station; and the brutal beating of U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., at a Rock Hill bus station in 1961.

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Wilson admitted to The Herald that he was one of several men who attacked Lewis at the Greyhound Bus Station leaving the respected civil rights leader with bruises and a split lip.

'His story is a powerful story; his story must not be forgotten,' Lewis told The Herald in a telephone interview Saturday. 'His story and the way he arrived at his position must be understood, must be told.'

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga, left, is seen with Elwin Wilson of Rock Hill, SC in Lewis' Washington, D.C. office Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009 while taping an interview for Good Morning America following his emotional apology

John Lewis stands (left) after being attacked and beaten by pro-segregationists in Montgomery, Alabama (right) while on his Freedom Riders protest across the United States in 1961

Elwin Wilson, (left), and Friendship 9 member Willie McCleod, (right), look over pictures from civil rights incidents in Rock Hill, S.C., in the 1960s. The group met at the Old Town Bistro in dowtown Rock Hill on Friday, Jan. 23. 2009

Wilson also apologized in several other public venues, including during a meeting with Lewis at the congressman's Capitol Hill office.

In 2009, Lewis, a congressman representing Georgia's 5th District, met Wilson in Washington D.C. where he told him that he was sorry and asked for forgiveness.

He also extended that apology to members of the Friendship Nine, who were nine young black men who were imprisoned for 30-days after they refused to leave a lunch counter in downtown Rock Hill in 196`.

Wilson's shame also included throwing an egg at a black men who simply wiped the yolk and shell from his hat while police officers watched on West Main Street.

He also admitted to trying to buy a house a the Anderson family, who are black, couldn't move into his neighborhood of Eden Terrace.

Wilson 'didn’t realize you can’t keep a neighborhood one color,'said Helena Anderson to The Charlotte Observer on Saturday from her Tillman Street home, where she and her family have lived across the street from Wilson for 35 years.

Elwin Hope Wilson holds a framed photograph of a KKK mob he participated in during one of the civil rights battles he was involved in during the early 1960s

In an April 2009 interview with the AP, Wilson tried to explain his remorse.

'All I can say is that it has bothered me for years, all the bad stuff I've done,' he said. 'And I found out there is no way I could be saved and get to heaven and still not like blacks.'

Once he came forward to admit his hate and ask for forgiveness, Wilson became a national symbol of reconciliation - even appearing on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show'.

Speaking on the popular show two years ago, Lewis told Winfrey that Wilson traveled to the congressman's office in 2009 and said what he had taken almost 50-years to realize.

'He said, 'I attacked you, and I'm sorry. I want to apologize. Will you accept my apology?' And I said, 'Yes.' And he gave me a hug, and he started crying. I hugged him back, and I shed some tears also,' Rep. Lewis said on the show.

Elwin Hope Wilson reads a book of poetry titled "Hope" that was given to him by an African American woman who was moved by his apology for violent acts in the 1960s against black civil rights proponents in Rock Hill, S.C.

This month, Lewis also received apologies from the current police chief of Montgomery, Ala., and the governor. But Wilson's apology remains special.

'He was the first private citizen,' Lewis said. 'He was the very, very first to come and apologize to me ... for a private citizen to come along and say, `I'm the one that attacked you; I'm the one who beat you.' It was very meaningful.'

In 2009, Lewis and Wilson accepted the Common Ground Award for Reconciliation at the Canadian embassy in Washington, D.C.

Also that year, both were honored in California with awards on Worldwide Forgiveness Day. In Maryland, Wilson presented Lewis with an award. They also told their story to Oprah Winfrey and millions of viewers.